I don't believe the basic premise of this Time article completely. But increased volatility is bad enough news for that part of the world, war or no war. This is troubling.
last Friday's unprecedented joint visit to Beirut by the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Syria ....David Cameron's pleas to Turkey to keep open its communication channels with Israel's leaders ...... despite the outward calm, the region may be on the brink of another catastrophic war ...... exceptionally quiet and uniquely dangerous, both for the same reason ...... "As Hizballah's firepower grows," the Crisis Group notes, "so too does Israel's desire to tackle the problem before it is too late ... What is holding the current architecture in place is also what could rapidly bring it down." ...... Israel is determined to strike a devastating blow more quickly than it did during the last conflict ..... Hizballah believes its capacity to fire missiles into Tel Aviv is key to restraining Israel from returning to finish off the Shi'ite militia ..... the self-styled "axis of resistance" — Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizballah — have deepened their alliance ..... "tensions are mounting with no obvious safety valve." ..... in the tragic tradition of Middle Eastern wars that have erupted in part because the adversaries failed to understand one another's intentions..... his movement's "divine victory" in standing up to Israel's 2006 offensive, a feat that made him a hero on the streets of the Arab world, Hizballah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah ....... the Israel-Lebanon border, where both sides have been preparing for the next war ever since the last one ended, neither desiring that option but both accepting it as inevitable ...... should Iran's nuclear facilities come under attack, Hizballah's rockets would figure prominently in Tehran's retaliation plans...... "there is no mechanism in place to either address or ease" those mounting tensions
Extensive dialogue mechanisms have to be sought. Those of use who operate in democratic frameworks tend to look down upon those who don't, and I might not want to argue with that, but if that looking down upon leads to vastly reduced engagement, that can create situations that run counter to the self interests of the larger world.
While we hope to create new realities, we have to engage with realities as they exist.
I hope you are coming, because the last Reshma 2010 office opening party I went to was a total blast. This is party time all over again. We have much to celebrate. You have to celebrate the incredible momentum before you get to celebrate the victory. The victory train is on the way.
Those who have suffered Maloney for 18 years. Help is on the way.
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
I have tried to stay away from the Rangel drama, but it is no longer possible. This motherfucker now stands squarely in my way when he had other, better options. Charlie Rangel has become a political suicide bomber, and he knows exactly what he is doing.
Motherfuckers like Charlie Rangel don't have legacies. They don't have places in history. He is too dumb, too shallow, too superficial, too much of a crook to have a place in history, he is too much of a sideshow. He is a fucking nobody. People like me decide what Charlie Rangel's place in history is going to be. Charlie Rangel is a motherfucker. That is his place in history. There, I just decided.
Capitalism has to have its creative destructions. You have to destroy a few banks to create the clean tech, bio tech and nano tech companies of tomorrow. That is the nature of the beast. Democracy, capitalism's twin brother/sister, also has to have its creative destructions. That is the nature of the beast. You have to necessarily destroy Charlie Rangel to create Barack Obama. We created Barack Obama in 2008, but we did not destroy Charlie Rangel before that. That was a mistake. We started the work on destroying Charlie Rangel in 2008. Now is the time to complete the task. This guy needs to disappear from the stage already.
Putting Malia and Sasha into the White House has been a bigger deal than putting Barack and Michelle Obama into the White House. Putting Malia and Sasha into the White House does for the self esteem of young black children across America, and across the continent of Africa, and perhaps for many children in Latin America and Asia that I would not know how to do with a trillion dollars to spend on the project. Having a great leader helped, but countless people like me put countless hours into Obama 08 to bring that about. And I am not letting this guy take away from that achievement. The heck with Charlie Rangel.
You can not win elections as many times as Charlie Rangel has and not see what your idiotic stand now is doing to Barack's effort to keep the House. Rangel is doing this on purpose. This motherfucker never really made peace with the fact that some time in 2004 Barack Obama became a bigger deal than him. The fuck with this guy.
White politicians in New York City who stand by this crook are being racist. They think playing nice to Charlie is playing nice to black people. Instead of doing the hard work of working through their racial prejudices and racial stereotypes and glass walls and ceilings that keep black people away, these whities have long been accustomed to thinking of Charlie Rangel as some kind of a racial short cut. Be nice to Charlie and you are clean, you are not racist. White politicians in New York City who stand by Charlie are racist people who think blacks as a people are crooks and Charlie Rangel somehow represents them. I have walked around and asked in Harlem. Most people never heard of the Rangel name. Obama, on the other hand, is another story.
For every JFK, there is a Richard Nixon. Charlie Rangel is the black people's Nixon. The guy is a crook. His ways have always been corrupt. How dare this pig equate my president with Dick Cheney? How dare he! My guy's very run for the presidency was about his having opposed the Iraq War from the start.
Cut Him Loose, Completely
Rangel was not able to get in the way when he had all the power and we had none, although he tried. He sure is not getting in our way when now we have all the power and he has none. If the American people had mistaken Barack Obama for a Charlie Rangel, they would never have elected him in the first place. I count on the American people's judgment to not mistake a Barack Obama for a Charlie Rangel. But the president has to keep doing what he has been doing. He has to make it absolutely clear Charlie Rangel is responsible for his own bad behavior, and that he wants him to step down and go away, sooner the better. He has to do it more forcefully as necessary.
Depriving My President Of A House
Charlie Rangel has one and only one goal left. The final mission of his political career is to deprive my president of a House. He failed in his mission to deprive my guy of the White House. What the fuck is the House?
Barack Obama has done wonderful things in his first two years. He has achieved FDR status after he passed health care reform. He is going to continue to do wonderful things. But losing the House now would jeopardize the next two years of his presidency. It would jeopardize his plans to work on comprehensive immigration reform next year. And Rangel knows this. I would know a thing or two about Rangel's stance on immigration.
Send this guy back to Uganda where he came from. He does not belong in the capital city of the world.
DL21C
And while we are on the topic.
I consider DL21C an enemy organization. That organization has two options. It can dismantle itself, or I am going to dismantle it. It is not necessary for me to do it. But I am going to do it for fun. And I am in no hurry to do it. Pre-digital organizations have no place in the Obama era. I am going to take that organization apart like it were an old computer, which is what it is.
What is this? Gangs Of New York? Eliminate the leader and take over his organization? I don't think so. I put blood, sweat and tears into nurturing the Obama crowd in this city. My gums were bleeding when you had me inside.
If any DL21C person ends up with any kind of a leadership role in town for Obama 2012, I am boycotting all Obama 20102 events in Manhattan. You got to know who your people are.
I did not expect Reshma 2010 to join Obama's national effort to keep the House and the Senate before September 15, but now our hand has been forced. I went through some tough times for Barack. Having Charlie Rangel for breakfast is going to be easy to do. Now I am going after Rangel like no Republican before me. That motherfucker is not getting in the way of my president and his House. So help me God.
Image by Kodak Agfa via Flickr
